The present invention relates to a photocoagulator and, more particularly, to a photocoagulator adapted to introduce a remedial light beam from a light source into an indirect opthalmoscope carried by the head, etc. of an operator and then, to apply the same coaxially with an illumination light for inspection to a patient's fundus oculi thereby to cure a defective part of the fundus oculi.
More specifically, the present invention relates to a photocoagulator in which the optical path of laser beam from a laser oscillator is arranged to be switchable between two optical fibers one of which transmits laser beam to an opthalmoscope and the other one of which transmits laser beam to a slit lamp, thereby the medical treatment of a patient's fundus oculi can be suitably made in accordance with positions of a lesion to be treated by selectively using the opthalmoscope and the slit lamp.
The photocoagulator has been widely used effectively for the remedy of various oculopathies such as retinal detachment, central serous retinopathy, retinal vein occlusion, diabetic retinopathy and so forth.
The photocoagulator is a device which is adapted to be used in combination with an ophthalmoscope so as to introduce, while the fundus oculi is inspected for detection of any lesion by means of an opthalmoscope, the remedial light beam to the lesion through the ophthalmoscope thereby to effect a photocoagulation.
Hitherto, various types of ophthalmoscopes have been used such as handy type monocle direct ophthalmoscope, handy type monocle indirect ophthalmoscope, binocular microscope, and combination of a slitlamp and a contact lens.
The monocle direct and indirect ophthalmoscopes have a comparatively large degree of freedom of operation, but requires a high degree of skill and experience in the operation partly because of limited field of vision and partly because of the monocular structure.
The binocular microscope suffers disadvantage that the degree of freedom of movement of the binocular microscope is rather small, because the binocular microscope and the light source section are connected by means of a rigid arm mechanism. In consequence, it is necessary to conduct the treatment with the patient being located in the vicinity of the photocoagulator. In addition, the manipulation of the arm mechanism is complicated. For these reasons, it is very difficult for the oculist to make the remedy without the help of a skilled assistant.
The combination of the slitlamp and the contact lens can suitably be used and are widely available for the operation in the region near the center of the fundas oculi, because it permits an easy photocoagulation operation and a fine coagulation. This type of ophthalmoscope, however, requires the patient to take sendentary posture during operation and can hardly be applied to the patient in the supination posture. For this reason, the combination of the slitlamp and the contact lens can hardly be applied to the treatment when the patient has the lesion in the peripheral portion of the fundus oculi.